of cockroaches and squat pots

In Bengali they don't say hi--they say "How are you?" Most of the children have been taught to say "I'm fine." So I will say to you, "How are you?" :)

After quite the travel, I have safely arrived at an orphanage near the small village of Heli in northern Bangladesh. We flew out Monday morning and arrived in Hong Kong around 4am our time, 7pm their time. We did our best to sleep on the airport benches, but those became uncomfortable quite quickly.Around 10am Hong Kong time, Elliot LaPlante (the other wallawalla SM travelling with me) and I started out adventure to downtown Hong Kong. First of all, we had trouble even getting out of the airport because HKG is about 8 storeys with multiple gates and we don't speak Chinese. We finally found our way out after 45min and bought a round trip pass to the Central terminal in Hong Kong. We jumped the train and stepped into another world filled with double decker buses and crowds of people.

Our first destination was Victoria Peak off of Garden Way. And again we got turned around and lost. We really only had 5hours to spare so time was of the essence. Eventually we found our way, walking double the distance in extremely humid air. Needless to say, we were drenched in our conservative clothes we were prepared to wear in Bangladesh later that evening. Victoria Peak was beautiful though. It has an outlook of all of Hong Kong (and it's outrageous smog). Elliot and I grabbed a quick lunch at Burger King at the top (original I know but we were hungry and not feeling adventurous in the food department).

We then made our way back down the mountain and headed over to the Star Ferry which takes you across the water to the Tsim Sha Tsui. The ferry was an old wooden foot passenger only tug boat that cost about 60 US cents to ride. We looked around for the Hong Kong Walk of the Stars on the other side but couldn't find it. We gave up after awhile because we were just so hot and thirsty from the day.
The hardest part of the day came when we had to get back to the airport express station. The road trip ticket also covered a hotel shuttle bus to take us back to Kowloon station, which would then take us to the airport. Apparently no one knows where Kowloon station is. So again, Elliot and I got lost looking for the darn station. One shuttle driver dropped us off in the middle of some street... randomly. Then we wandered around for about 30min trying to see if he had dropped us off at the right place.. Nope. haha
Eventually we found our way back to the train with about two and a half hours to spare. We were in one piece and had seen yet another great city :)

Jumping on the plane to Dhaka was fairly uneventful. I was afraid the immigration people wouldn't let me through because my visa is for only 4months and my return ticket is for March but they did thankfully. We spent the night in Dhaka at the Adventist Dental Clinic in the Uttara district. We met Litton who is the treasurer for the orphanage. He has a Masters degree in English from a university in India and is so great to talk to. Mr. Waid and him took Elliot and me to get a SIM card adapter for internet. I have never been stared at so much as that day... wow. I felt like I had 6 legs or something.

Things I learned in Dhaka:
1. If you don't have a car horn, you are nothing.
2. Big buses trump your little car when merging. Always.
3. Road lines mean absolutely nothing. Why fit two cars in two lanes if you can fit three?
4. A life for a life means something in this country. If you hit a pedestrian, you will be pulled from you car and killed. Seriously.
5. If I ever go missing, first look for me in the potholes because you could lose a minivan in some of those things.

We took a rickshaw to London Plaza to meet Mrs. Waid and exchange money into taka. One US dollar equals about 70taka. The rickshaws were crazy! I think our driver purposefully tried to hit all the potholes in hopes of bucking us out of the cart. What an experience... When we found the others, we all got into a pickup truck and drove to the other side of Dhaka, Gulshan, where a dress show was. However, the truck was very old and we broke down in the middle of the street in traffic. The four of us white women had to get out and push this truck while our driver steered us towards the side. Bengali men stood on the side laughing and taking pictures with their cell phones. One man did comment that there was very nice scenery but no one offered to help :P

Our driver, Jason who also speaks very good English, called us an auto rickshaw, which is basically the tiniest three-wheeled bus you've ever seen. The four of us (Mrs.Waid, her niece Brittni, Elliot, and me) all squished in the back and rode on to the dress shop. We found such nice clothes there. We all got at least one nice church outfit there. We went back to London Plaza and bought a couple more cheap cotton outfits. We then headed to the tailor who measured each of us and would make the outfits in about 10days.

Words I've learned so far in Bengali:
1. Donobad (pronounced dough-no-bad) meaning Thank-you.
2. Seluar (pronounced sel-o-ar) meaning the pants part of the traditional outfit.
3. Kameez (pronounced ka-meese, rhymes with geese lol) meaning the shirt/tunic part.
4. Orna meaning the scarf of the outfit (sounds how it's written).
5. [Not sure how to spell but...] mach (fish), dim (egg), dood (milk), a-may to-mar-kay ballo-bashi (I love you).

We stayed overnight at the Adventist college and headed to the orphanage early Friday morning. I can't believe it took so long to get here! The roads between the villages are crazy and on more than one occasion I really thought I would be lost in a car wreck. But Bengali's are very good drivers and we got to BanglaHope safely. After putting our luggage in our room (pictures to come...) we immediately went down to start meeting the 80+ children and see the facilities we would call home for the next couple months.

I would I could but into words how wonderful the kids are here. Each one is so beautiful and so wanting to be picked up and kissed, wanting to feel special. I picked up one little girl and she wrapped her arms and legs around me so tightly, not letting go for about an hour. She pushed her head into my neck and stayed there the whole time, not letting me put her down for games or anything. It really did bring tears to my eyes to know this little girl just wants to be loved so desperately... wow. This is going to be an interesting experience to say the least.

We had communion Sabbath today. I liked knowing that we are starting this trip off right, starting it with God close. We did the foot washing and I chose to wash the feet of one of the house mothers' feet. Her name is Juic-na and she doesn't speak any English but is really sweet in her mannerisms. I washed her feet first and when I was done I gave her a hug and she cried. It was an amazing experience!

Anyways, the power is going in and out right now and we're about to go to bed. We're still kinda jet lagged as it's about 6:45am at home. I'm sorry this turned out to be such a long email--there is just so much to tell. Every adventure is so real to me and I want to share it with you so much!

I miss you all and I hope you're doing well :D Please pray for me still.. I'm going to need it in the coming days, weeks, months!
ami tomake bhalobashi

p.s. On the way here we stopped for fresh naan bread. The bathrooms only had squat pots which was definitely a new thing!
p.s.s. When we were unpacking our clothes, a giant cockroach crawled out of one of the drawers. It was gross!
p.s.s.s. There are so many bugs here! They are all over my screen and it's gross.. And we have geckos that crawl on our walls. They are kinda fun :)